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Billionaire Abramovic's jet spotted in Perth

Speculation is swirling as to why the private jet of Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich flew into Brisbane and Perth in recent days.

The tycoon owner of 2012 Champions League winners Chelsea FC - currently the 50th richest person in the world with an estimated fortune of $US19.6 billion ($AU19 billion) according to the 2012 Forbes list - appears to have made a flying visit to Australia at the weekend, jetting in from Hawaii and leaving for Dubai.

Mr Abramovich's luxurious Dassault Falcon 7X jet - with the distinctive registration LX-MES - was logged as having landed at Brisbane airport from about 11.30am AEST last Thursday, according to flight tracking website www.flightaware.com.

The jet left for Perth on Sunday morning, landing at Perth International airport at around 2.50pm local time and staying overnight.

In June, it was reported that Mr Abramovich was in talks with mining giant BHP Billiton to set up a joint venture to develop a potentially massive gold and copper mining project in Russia's far east.

Mr Abramovich's private company Millhouse Capital and BHP Billiton are said to be keen to develop a project in the Baimskaya region that reportedly has potential reserves of 27 million tonnes of copper and 1600 tonnes of gold.

Late last month, Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky was left with legal bills of tens of millions of pounds after losing a High Court battle with Mr Abramovich.

Mr Abramovich also has history with Tony Sage, the multi-millionaire owner of A-League soccer club Perth Glory and mining company Cape Lambert. The Russian bought around 16 per cent of Cape Lambert shares through his Evraz Group in 2008.